LIBRARY OFCONGRESS. 




UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



CHRISTIAN UNION 



NECESSARY FOR 



Religious Progress and Defense. 



BY JOHN F. HURST, D.D. 






|3 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, 1.1 BASLE, SWITZERLAND, 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1879. 



0^ - A, 






NEW YORK: 
PHILLIPS & HUNT 

CINCINNATI : 
HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 

1880. 






3X1 



OF 



Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Copyright iSSo, by 
HILiLjIPS db XITJZ^^T. 
New Vork. 



CONTENTS. 



I. THE IDEAL CHURCH. 

1. Origin. 2. Doctrine. 3. The Example. 4. The 
Experience. 

II. UNITY NOT TO BE MISTAKEN FOR UNIFORMITY 
—UNIFORMITY NOT DESIRABLE. 

III. FAILURE OF ENFORCED UNIFORMITY. 

IV. THE AMERICAN EXAMPLE. 

V. NO AMERICAN SURRENDER OF INDIVIDUALITY. 

VI. GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN UNION IN THE MOST 
RECENT TIMES. 

1. The Prevailing Theology. 2. Measures toward 
Union of Organization. 3. Danger of Prema- 
ture Union. 4. The Lesson of the Evangelical 
Alliance. 5. Sunday-school Instruction. 6. Bible 
Revision. 7. Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions. 

VII. NECESSITY OF UNION IN OPPOSING ERROR. 

1. Heathenism. 2. Romanism. 3. Skepticism. 
4. Union of Society. 

VIII. THE ADVANCE YET TO BE MADE. 

1. Preaching of Fundamental Doctrines. 2. De- 
nominational Interchange. 3. Love of Common 
Possessions. 

IX. UNITY IN THE CHURCH MILITANT A PREPA- 
RATION FOR THE HIGHER UNITY OF THE 
CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 



NOTE. 



The following Address was largely prepared away from 
my library, during a brief summering at Schwalbach, Ger- 
many. It was subjected to the conditions of the main public 
sessions of the Evangelical Alliance, and needed, therefore, 
to. be delivered in the German language, with much matter, 
originally designed for delivery, omitted. The whole Address 
has in this new shape undergone careful revision / important 
parts have been added to the text, and such full foot-notes and 
references have been given as one has facility and the heart to 
do when he is within arm's length of his own books. The ac- 
counts of the Young Men's Christian Associations and of the 
Free Religion Conference have been given here in much fuller 
form than when originally prepared for use at Basle. 

Drew Theological Seminary, ) J . F . H . 

Madison, N. J., Jan. 1, 1880. ) 



CHRISTIAN UNION NECESSARY FOR RELIGIOUS 
PROGRESS. 



THE IDEAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

All history abounds in positive and sharp antagonisms. Her 
favorite colors are contrasts ; her masterpieces are parts and 
counterparts. In her long gallery she seems to take a special 
pride in rearing beauty close beside deformity — Paul not far 
from Nero, Luther at Tetzel's elbow, Coligny within sight of 
Catharine de Medici, Knox near the Scotch Mary, and Wesley 
in near neighborhood to Bolirigbroke and Hume. It is thus 
that He who rules the years, and is Lord of the harvest, pro- 
vides good hands to uproot the evil tares, and to those who 
come after he proves his ardent love for their better wisdom 
and surer steps ; for, such are our dullness of perception and 
dimness of vision, that we learn by glare of color what Ave 
never could hope to acquire by hues of milder quality. The 
Church is no exception to this law of formation and transform- 
ation. Its origin is in heaven, but its march is along the dusty 
pathways of earth. It abounds in extremes, but it also com- 
bines them with amazing skill. It is affected by its human 
surroundings, and is strong or weak in faith, aggressive or pros- 
trate, heroic or timid, according to the spirit of those consti- 
tuting its membership. The Church is not some rigid and 
metallic tiling, whose history is a mere Hegelian necessity, over 
whose future its members have no conditioning <>r determining 
power. It has its enduring foundations, its precious truths, its 
prophecy of final triumph over sin; but it is constantly under- 



6 

going such changes as new generations bring with them. The 
human does affect the divine. 

An important question, then, to settle is : To what part of 
this career of the Church must we look as its purest and best ? 
In other words, When, if ever, was there an ideal Christian 
Church ? We answer : The first period of Christianity presents 
us with the best view of the Church of Christ, and all subse- 
quent history is simply a succession of approaches and depart- 
ures from that pure beginning. It was Christ's kingdom in 
microcosm. The Church was of small membership, of no ma- 
terial wealth, with no helpful literature or favoring legislation 
on the part of the Roman Empire, and with its patience yet 
untested ; but it was still pure, and had heard from the Master 
the command of universal conquest. It had made no mistakes. 
It was radiant with the recent presence of the Messiah, and 
was extending through the labors of his surviving disciples and 
companions. 

Christ had two fundamental thoughts in regard to the future 
of his body of believers : First, that they should be pure ; and 
second, that they should be united. On'y from purity as a 
root could there be hope of the vigorous growth of unity. If 
we would know what is the uppermost thought in a great mind 
we must listen to the last words. When the sharp outlines 
of this human life are getting dim, and the cnrtain hiding the 
future is about to be drawn aside, the lips are wont to express 
the whole mind. The father speaks with a new tenderness 
and disclosure to his children. In these last interviews the 
love and tenderness of a lifetime are compacted. This beau- 
tiful humanness we find in Christ himself, The hour had 
come, at last, when he could make full revelation of his love. 
" Henceforth," he said, " I call you not servants, but friends." 
The days of servitude and concealment were past ; the time of 
friendship and intense communion had come. 

Christ never had any fears for the progress and perpetuity 
of his Church. He knew that it was the small mustard-seed 



which should produce the broad, sheltering tree. It was the 
leaven which should leaven the whole mass of the human race. 
But the one thing which seemed to give him most concern 
was the possible divisions that might arise while on the way to 
this final triumph. This apprehension cast a shadow over his 
last utterances to his disciples ; nay, over his last prayers to the 
Father. " This is my commandment," he said, as if all com- 
mandments were comprised in this, " that ye love one another." 
Then this love must be of divine quality : " as I have loved 
you." Who will measure the depth of Christ's love for his 
children ? It was his love which led him to assume the form of 
our frail humanity, to pass through the sorrows of an 
earthly pilgrimage, and to undergo the shame and hostility of 
Jew, and Greek, and Roman. 'No language can express the 
force of this great love. Even inspiration does not attempt its 
measurement. Yet this is the boundless and indescribable 
love placed before us as the measure and example of the 
love which all believers are enjoined to exercise toward each 
other. 

But as Christ prays that those who have seen him, and have 
been taught by him, may be united by the great bond of 
love for him, he looks into the far future. He knows that the 
trials before his children are to be many and severe. He fore- 
sees that their unity is to pass through the severest ordeals, and 
hence he says : " Neither pray I for these alone ; but for them 
also which shall believe on me through their word ; that they 
all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be one in us ; that the world may believe 
that thou hast sent me." 

In harmony with these final declarations of the Master are 
the positive statements of those apostles and writers who 
caught most fully the spirit of his life. Paul said : " Now I 
beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions 
among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the 



8 

same mind, and in the same judgment." John, the adoring 
and the loving, who carried into his latest years the precions 
memories of Him on whose breast he had leaned, preached, 
latest of all, the evangel of love : " Little children, love one 
another." This aspiration for unity entered into the whole 
structure of the primitive Church : " The multitude of them 
that believed were of one heart and of one soul." Tins 
was the firm attitude of the primitive Church, and all the 
teachers of the initial age of Christianity enforced the lesson 
of the broadest brotherhood. 

It would seem that it was a part of the divine plan, that the 
believers of all ages should learn their oneness in Christ from 
the very nature of their new life and of the divine organization 
into which they had entered. 

1. Origin. 

t 

Christianity stands alone among religions in the complete 
unity of its conception and doctrinal basis. All the other 
ethnic religions are mosaics. Kot one has coherency. They 
have been brought together from various quarters, are the out- 
growth of various minds, and of the juxtaposition of numberless 
superstitions. It is difficult to tell, in some of them, which ele- 
ment predominates, from what country the prevailing idea has 
come. Even Mohammedanism, which is at least some advance 
on the idolatry of the farther East, and has always made 
its boast of unity, is a hopeless mixture of Arabian legend, 
Talmudic fable, Persian fatalism, and the gross materialism of 
the remoter and wilder Orient. The same incongruity is found 
in all the other leading false religions. But Christianity stands 
out before mankind as the one faith which challenges the love 
of the world by virtue of its individuality and the perfect har- 
mony of its proportions. 

Far back in the infancy of man, when God made his first rev- 
elation to our erring humanity, he ordained a redeeming day and 
a universal Saviour. Around the one promise of a Redeemer 



were grouped all the types and shadows, the prophecies, tradi- 
tions, form of government, choice of a home, and the hopes of 
the people. When the Eedeemer came, in God's chosen hour 
and place, it was the fulfillment of centuries of prophecy and 
preparation. He gathered his few disciples about him, gave them 
the impress of his love and the treasure of his truth, and died 
by violent hands. His work survived his bodily presence, for 
good deeds have none of the taint of mortality. His cause 
had such a singular pow T er over those who espoused it that they 
cheerfully died for it. So soon as Christianity proved itself a 
dangerous foe to the pagan faith, the latter proposed a compro- 
mise — that there should be an amalgamation of the leading ele- 
ments of both Christianity and paganism. Christianity de- 
clined the proposition. Its mission could endure no admixture. 
So, Roman paganism, the mosaic of all previous ages and all 
lands that had entered the region of universal history, now 
for the first time came in contact with a faith which would 
not submit to absorption or assimilation. Christianity, with its 
acute consciousness of its own complete unity, never listened 
for a moment to the proposition for a duality of life. It was 
eager to undertake its mission without the gegis of any other 
faith. Hence it said to Gnosticism what Christ once said to 
the author of it, " Get thee behind me, Satan." 

2. Doctrine. 
The unity of the Church is likewise clearly taught in its 
doctrinal structure. Whether the sacred writers were ac- 
quainted with each other or not, whether they belonged to 
the same century, or spoke the same language, or were citi- 
zens of the same country, were small questions, that had no 
bearing on the one great fact of the harmony of their doctrine. 
The sacred writers from Moses to John taught the same truth. 
Truth is many-sided, and all sides need to be emphasized. ( >ne 
writer may declare the great necessity of faith, another that 

of works, but all agree on the necessity of faith and works. 
2 



10 

The harmony and progress of the Scriptures are sublime. The 
afflatus of inspiration in revealing the Bible gave it a brother- 
hood never jet disturbed by hostile criticism. There was com- 
plete unanimity in the early Church as to what were the canon- 
ical books of Scripture, and one of the first thoughts of the 
Christians was to combine them. God taught this canonicity 
definitely. First the truth, and then the identification of it — 
these were two separate and positive divine lessons. The one- 
ness of scriptural doctrine, without admixture from Persia, 
Athens, or Rome, gave the Church its marvelous oneness of faith 
and power. The Christian in exile and the martyr at home 
had one common rule of life. They minded the same doctrine. 
By and by there arose serious divergencies of view concerning 
fundamental truths, such as the procession of the Holy Spirit, 
and the relation of sin and grace. But all who were of devout 
life and sincere purpose professed firm faith in the Scriptures, 
and in due time the real departure from the written word was 
seen and decided, and those who had conducted it either re- 
turned to the Scripture standard, or passed out of the pale of 
the Church and disappeared in hopeless oblivion. But there 
was always a general progress. Each age had its own problems 
to solve. The second century settled the question of the mon- 
archism of God ; the third established the true distinction of 
the persons in the Godhead ; while the fourth settled finally 
the doctrine of consubstantiality in God. These were all nec- 
essary stages on the highway to truth ; and, as a proof of the 
unity of the apologetic period, stands the fact, that the liter- 
ature of that age is still the greatest store-house for Christian 
defense. With all our modern accession to evidences, the fun- 
damental arguments lie back in the writings of the apologetic 
fathers of the first 'four centuries of the Christian era. 

3. The Example. 
However pure the pre-Christian lessons to men for holy living, 
there was still need of a spotless example. In the incarnation 



11 

of Christ the world beheld its first pure example. The pagan 
annals had abounded in rare minds. But they nowhere fur- 
nished a model life. Plutarch, himself coming late, when he 
could look back on these choicest spirits, grouped them all into 
one work. But he could declare no one of them worthy of the 
imitation of succeeding generations. Surely we may expect 
some better character from the chosen family. But the Jewish 
records do not present a pure type of humanity. Not Abra- 
ham, nor Moses, nor Aaron, nor David, nor Isaiah — patriarch, 
legislator, priest, king, or prophet— was worthy to be held up 
by the lowliest mother as an infallible guide for her child. But 
when Christ, the Desire of all nations, came, he said, " I am the 
Way." There is no stain in him. From Bethlehem to Calvary 
his words were the speech of God to men. His feet never grew 
weary in seeking his lost sheep. So, from the day of his passion — 
which supplies the last color to this perfect picture — to the pres- 
ent day, the world has had one spotless example for living and 
dying. It need seek nowhere else. Its search will not be re- 
warded. This blameless example was needed to give unity of 
life to the doctrine which he proclaimed. The truth would 
have been incomplete without the Sinless Incarnation to re- 
spond to it. 

4. The Experience. 

The Church in its purer periods has always attached a vital 
importance to the religious experience. Of all the lessons of 
Pentecost, this is the supreme one : The human spirit must 
become the temple of the Holy Ghost. The entrance of the 
heavenly Guest marks the boundary between the old life and 
the new, the impure and the pure, the human and the di- 
vine. Until this experience is reached, the whole life is with- 
out the needed sunlight and the brightest sanctity. After it 
is reached, we observe the presence of a divine factor in the 
human soul, a strange force, the sure pledge of a high destiny. 
The converts at Pentecost had this transcendent power of a 
new experience, to which they could look back with all the 



12 

subtle power of a certain memory. Men may forget many 
things, but not the sublime experience through, which they pass 
into Christian manhood. The clearness of religious experience 
entered at once into the life and culture of the Church. The 
conversion of Paul was always an element in his sermons. 
TVhen the Christians met together they found themselves at 
once brothers by virtue of a common regeneration of soul. 
They had been made one in Christ. 

The identity of experience destroyed all artificial distinctious. 
Perpetua, of noble blood, rejoiced to kiss, when dying, the slave 
Felicitas. There was a golden chain that bound them together. 
This oneness of Christian experience has been one of the most 
beautiful of all the characteristics of Christian history. In 
periods of greatest tribulation, when it seemed as if the burn- 
ing bush would be consumed, this community of religious 
experience asserted itself with greatest force. The Kef ormers 
breathed the atmosphere of tender sympathy. God opened 
many eyes at once, and when the new light saluted these brave 
spirits they counseled with each other. Their places of exile be- 
came the gate of heaven. Basle, Strasburg, Geneva, Frankfort- 
on-the-Hain, and Zurich proved to be Bethels to the banished 
Protestants from Great Britain. 

John Knox, in Frankfort, laid foundations so broad for 
the later Protestantism of Scotland, that his spirit seems still 
to walk abroad in the land. The presence of Erasmus, Ochino, 
Peter Martyr, Bucer, and others in Oxford is a lesson to us 
that we dare not forget — that where two men are united to 
Christ by the same experience, and are seeking a common hnal 
reward, and partake of the same divine mysteries, they are 
brothers. 1 "Where God sets his seal of approval on his work- 
men, and gives them success in the savins: of souls, and their 



1 That the polity of the Eef ormers was no barrier to brotherhood, we hear 
Bishop Hall saying : "I reverence from my soul those worthy foreign Churches 
which have chosen and followed those forms of outward government that are the 
very fittest for their own condition.'' — Apology Against Brownists, fol. ed., p. 498. 



13 

lives illustrate the doctrine which they preach, they belong to 
the great community of believers, and are brothers, wherever 
found. Archdeacon Hare sees in the community of privilege 
and treasure the real links of Christian brotherhood : "If the 
body holds to the one Head, and is connected by the one faith, 
and is sanctified by the one baptism, it is a Church before God, 
and woe to us if we deny it is so ! " 1 

II. 

UNITY NOT TO BE MISTAKEN FOR UNIFORMITY 
—UNIFORMITY NOT DESIRABLE. 

The limited vision often confuses unity and uniformity. 
Each may exist without the other. There may be a spirit of 
love and heartiness in cooperation, and yet no oneness in form 
and method. On# the other hand, there may be a faultless 
form of cooperation, and yet no unity of soul. The numerous 
sects of the Russo-Greek Church are a notable proof that there 
may be a form of unity without any approach to the fact. 2 
Oneness in spirit and divine approval decides both the geogra- 
phy and the fellowship of believers. TJbi Spiritus Sanctus, 
ibi Ecclesia. No unchanging form of Church government was 
delivered to the apostles. Indeed, Paul teaches that this di- 
versity is essential to the development of the Church. 3 Di- 
versity of form arose very early, and the first teachers exhibited 
great anxiety lest the unity of soul might be disturbed by any 
diversity that might arise through the multiplication of mem- 
bers, their citizenship in various countries, their variety of 
national characteristics, and their general difference of condi- 
tion. Ephesus soon deviated from Jerusalem, Corinth from 
Antioch, Alexandria from Constantinojile, and Rome from all. 

There was no uniform usage in fasting throughout the 

i See Introduction to Sermon on the Unity of the Church. 
•* Sec Eokhardt, Modem Russia. This author furnishes numerous evidences 
of the inward dissensions in (he Russo-Greek Church. 
'Compare Bodge, Conference Papers^ |»|>. 806, 807. 



u 

Christian territory. In some Churches the members fasted 
one day : in others, two : in some, still more ; and only forty 
hours in others. But they all remained in the spirit of love ; 
this very diversity of custom, as Irenteus says, commending 
the nnity of their faith. 1 The fast of Easter was variously 
observed, and without causing an infraction of true fellowship. 
Some Churches had no bishops, as the Scots and Goths : others 
had one in the whole country ; while others had one in each 
important city." Yet these Churches remained in loving 
fellowship. TTnif orruity of rites and usages was never regarded 
as necessary. 3 The Churches were compelled to this diver- 
sity. aLd they accepted it, not as an evil, but as a blessing. 
When taunted by pagan writers for a want of uniformity, the 
Christians boldly admitted it. and rejoiced in it, and proved 
that there was beneath it a deep and strong union never known 
to the pagan world. Tertullian thus gave a voice to the 
Church of his time : " TVe are ready to die for each other, and 
we call one another brethren because we acknowledge one and 
the same God and Father, and have been sanctified by the 
same Holy Spirit, and have been brought from the same state 
of ignorance to the light of the same marvelous truth." * The 
triumph of the Church was certain when animated by such a 
spirit. Its spirit of love was a prophecy of universal reign. 

III. 

THE FAILURE OF ENFORCED UNIFORMITY. 

The attempts to enforce uniformity of ceremonial and or- 
ganic forms have always defeated the objects they were de- 
signed to promote. This was the chief error of Queen 
Elizabeth. The Act of Uniformity, passed in the first year of 
her reign, and re-affirmed at the Restoration, was highly disinte- 

% Apud E'Mfb.. lib. 5. cap. 21. 

2 Stillingfleet. Trenicum. Phila. ed., 1842, pp. 369, ff. 
s Lord King. Primidie Church. Xew York ed., p. I - 
*Apoloo.. cap. 39. 



15 

grating in its final issues, and was the most unfortunate act of 
her long and brilliant reign, so far as the general interests of 
the Church were concerned. She expressed as her motives, 
that " she was certainly determined to have all such diversities, 
varieties, and novelties among them of her clergy and her peo- 
ple as had nothing but contention, offense, and breach of com- 
mon charity, and were also against the laws, good usages, and 
ordinances of her realm, reformed and repressed, and brought 
to the manner of uniformity through her whole realm and do- 
minions." x 

King James I. had the same Utopian dream of the necessity 
of outward uniformity for inward unity, and so he declared : 
"I will have one doctrine and one discipline, one religion in 
substance and in ceremony." 2 By the Act of Uniformity 
two thousand ministers, among the most zealous in the land, 
were separated from their flocks, and every fifth flock was 
without a shepherd. The desired harvest came not from this 
sowing. The whole stormy career of the English people and 
Church from 1560 to 1662 proves the utter inability of mere 
legislation to promote unity of soul by ordaining outward uni- 
formity. 

The necessity of a varied Church life lies in the nature of 
our humanity. 3 Yaughan, a wise critic on the genesis of 
Protestant differences in England, says : " The works of God 
are every- where characterized by variety, and a plan to separate 
men from all temptation, either to presumption or discontent, 
by conferring benefits upon them on the principle of a strict, 
monotonous equality, would have been to make human nature 
an exception to the general character of the system with which 
it is connected. . . . Our heavenly Father has given more of 

1 See Elizabeth's Letter to Archbishop Parker. Hare says on this celebrated 
Act of Uniformity, with keen wit: "The Queen must have known how hard it was 
to keep her frill, however stiffly starched, smooth and in order for a single day." 

3 James I.'s Declaration at the Hampton Court Conference. 

3 C. G. Ulrici, Die llegelung der kirchlichm Fviiluit durch ordenilieht Hcncral 
Synoden. 



16 

the charm of variety to man, the noblest of his works, than to 
any other part of his creation known to us." 1 There are 
those who think otherwise, and in their fear of variety in relig- 
ious forms would exclaim, " Yes, the sky would be very beauti- 
ful if we might but comb out its tresses and put its jewels in 
order." 2 But they forget that God has so constituted us that 
we must be varied, and that with the variety have come much of 
the religious strength and beauty that have adorned the annals 
of the Church. The law is : Oneness of spirit, but diversity 
of gifts. The unity of the Church is unity in Christ. 3 

As when one withdraws from the busy sounds of the street 
into some minster chapel, where all the noises of the street 
and the mart grow faint, and are forgotten in the strange but 
softer harmonies of the holy place, so may the believer withdraw 
from the contemplation of the distractions and temporary dis- 
tinctions of the great body of which he forms a part, and think 
only of the higher melody of paternal love and common wor- 
ship. The more fully we breathe the atmosphere of the first 
period of the Church, and the nearer we come into communion 
with our one Father, the more fully we see the supremacy of 
the reign of love. Gambold, a Moravian poet of the last 
century, says : 

" I'm apt to think the man 
That could surround the sum of things, and spy 
The heart of God and secrets of his empire, 
Would speak but love. "With him the bright result 
"Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, 
And make one thing of all theology." 

There is a love which controls and combines diversities, and 

1 Religious Parties of England, pp. 1*78, 179. 

2 Hare, Sertnon on Unity of the Cliurch. 

3 Hooker says: "The unity of the Church of Christ consisteth in that uni- 
formity which all the several persons thereunto belonging have, by reason of that 
one Lord whose servants they all profess themselves-, that one Father whom they 
all acknowledge,- that one baptism whereunto they are all initiated." — Eccles. Pol- 
ity, iii, 1, 3. 



17 

even converts them into great forces. 1 Bacon's excellent 
maxim is worthy a place on all denominational escutcheons : 
"Differentiae ritum commendant unitatem doctrince." "Above 
all these things," says Paul, as the zone which encircles the 
rich drapery of all the lesser virtues, " put on charity, which 
is the bond of perfectness." 

IV. 
THE AMERICAN EXAMPLE. 

The American Church presents the most recent historical 
illustration of the union of evangelical Christians amid great 
diversity of doctrinal interpretation. The Colonial Period, ex- 
tending from 1617 to 1776, was distinguished for its variety of 
population and religious belief. Every Protestant country in 
Europe had its representative on the American continent during 
the plastic period of our civilization. When Protestantism in 
Europe was suppressed for a time, as when Mary succeeded to 
the throne of England, and the edict of Nantes was revoked in 
France, the American colonies offered security from the block 
and the stake. Ten different currents of blood and race made 
up the population of the colonies. These had come with their 
diversities, and yet the common sufferings through which the 
colonists had passed, and the distance at which they now 
lived from the old battle-fields, taught them something of nec- 
essary charity for working out their ecclesiastical mission. 
Their fundamental motive was religious liberty, and not com- 
mercial advantage or the rearing of a political structure. They 
sought the former, but the latter was added. European writers 
have been correct, therefore, in terming the first stage of the 
American political structure a " Theocracy." a The long future 
was before the colonists, and they heard warning words coming 
down from the elder days, " See that ye fall not out by the way." 

1 Rothe says: "Every one will acknowledge without hesitation that the high- 
est unity, the most perfect catholicity, is that which comprehends, combines, and 
reconciles the utmost Fullness of diversities." — Anfangc dcr christlichen Kirch*, 

» Uhden, for example. 

8 



18 

Calvin, the double exile, first from France and second from 
Geneva, was known to have said : " Keep your small differ- 
ences. Let us have no discord on that account ; but let us 
march in one solid column under the banner of the Captain of 
our salvation, and with undivided counsels form the legion of 
the cross upon the territories of darkness and death. I should 
not hesitate to cross ten seas, if by this means holy communion 
might prevail among the members of Christ." * Later, 
Wesley was heard to say : "I desire to have a league, offen- 
sive and defensive, with every soldier of Christ. We have not 
only one faith, one hope, one Head, but are directly engaging 
in one warfare/' 2 

The emphasis placed upon the distinguishing doctrines of 
Christians has never been so strong in the United States as in 
the mother countries. Perhaps this belongs to the victories 
that some children inherit from valiant ancestors. All of the 
American denominations have depended entirely upon the ope- 
ration of the voluntary principle for the support of their insti- 
tutions of learning, the building of their churches, the support 
of their clergy, and the evangelization of the neglected and 
forgotten. The very conditions of their existence have brought 
them within clear view of each other. They have been com- 
pelled to combine their efforts for the lifting up of the fallen, 
caring for four millions of liberated slaves, the reaching of the 
unevangelized, and the ministering to the wounded and the 
dying in battle. 

Y. 

NO AMERICAN SURRENDER OF DENOMINATIONAL 
INDIVIDUALITY. 

Yet no American evangelical Church would respect itself 
should it make a surrender of its own individuality. Not one 
feels that to be loyal to the charity of believers it must forget 
its own history, bury its doctrinal standards, take down from 

1 See Address to the Lutheran Churches. 

a Letter to a Clergyman of the Church of England. 



19 

its portraifr^gallery the grim and scarred faces that tell of the 
strifes of the heroic period, teach its young people an inverte- 
brate theology, and avoid preaching on the doctrines that have 
given it its individuality and much of its endurance. Nothing 
is gained by the destruction of personality and denominational 
integrity. Each is stronger because of a just fidelity to its past. 
All the great bodies of Evangelical Christians in the United States 
are mightier because of their unbroken unity. Schleiermacher, 
Neander, and Yinet have taught Americans, not less than 
Europeans, that there is a certain intense power in the individ- 
ualism of Christian life in all ages, and that much of the de- 
velopment of the Church has grown out of the assertion of 
this individuality. 1 

YL 

GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN UNION IN THE MOST 
RECENT TIME. 

The last half century has witnessed more cordial relations 
among Christians than had existed at any time since the Reform- 
ation. In evidence of this increasing fraternity we notice : 

1. The Prevailing Theology. 
The presence of the common skeptical foe has led the Church 
to inquire anew into the evidence of its supernatural origin. 
Thus has arisen the recent great productiveness in apologetical 
literature. All Protestant countries have shared in this noble 
work. Germany, the first to revive the attack on faith, has 
been the first to resist it. Neander, Tholuck, Hengstenberg, 
Ullmann, and men of kindred spirit, have become teachers to 
all Christian lands. As a distinct department of apologetics, 
we may name the new examination of the scriptural records. 
What answer do we find in the word of life ? What does God 
say to us? These are serious inquiries in these serious times. 

1 Schleiermacher has applied the principle of individuality to ethics, and Ne- 
ander has given it a singularly beautiful and forceful application to eoolesiastioal 
history. 



20 

In exegetical theology we find the countries and the Confessions 
combining all their aptitudes for the important work of script- 
ural interpretation. A single commentary, edited in the orig- 
inal German by a theologian on the banks of the Rhine, and in 
the English version by another on the Hudson, is the joint pro- 
duction of twenty Continental and fifty American editors and 
translators. The Speaker's Commentary is, in another sense, 
the fruit of varied scholarship. It is an unmistakable sign of 
the times, that when the Church proposes to accomplish some 
great exegetical task, it should endeavor to combine writers 
without serious question as to their confessional differences. 

2. Measures toward Union of Organization. 

Denominational union has been assuming a historical impor- 
tance. The Evangelical Union of the Lutheran and Reformed 
Churches in Germany in 1817 was the initial step in Protestant 
Germany. The reunion of the Old and New School Presby- 
terian Churches in the United States was a great advance. The 
various members of the leading ecclesiastical families have been 
consulting — such as the Pan- Anglican Convention in Lambeth, 
and the Pan-Presbyterian Convention in Edinburgh. The two 
chief Methodist Churches in the United States — the Methodist 
Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South — 
have held anticipative consultations ; and the former Church 
has even inaugurated arrangements for a meeting of all the 
Methodist Churches of every country. Other great religious 
bodies are going over, in brotherly love, the points dear and in 
common to all. This tendency toward organic union is in the 
ecclesiastical atmosphere about us. 

3. Danger of Premature Union. 

There is danger, however, that organic union may be carried 
too far, and prematurely adopted. Astronomy teaches that a 
premature approach of heavenly bodies cuts off all opportunity 
of future harmony. The repulsion then becomes so great that 



21 

there seldom takes place a sympathy of future orbits. Real 
union is not a manufacture. It is a growth, and must be in- 
spired by divine law. Time must do its work before the folds 
of the charitable mantle can fall as gently as we would desire 
over the seams and sharpnesses of the past. Love cannot be 
controlled by the vote of an assembly or the stroke of a bell. 
The premature union of religious bodies brings more evils in 
its train than if there had been no approach at all. 

4. The Lesson of the Evangelical Alliance. 
The Evangelical Alliance is an outgrowth of the irenical 
spirit of the century. It is impossible to tell just when and 
where it originated. Like the Reformation, it was a common 
impulse of widely-distributed Christian peoples. There is an 
American thread in this fabric. In 1839 there was formed in 
New York, chiefly through the labors of Rev. Dr. Schmucker, 
a society for the purpose of promoting Christian unity. A 
pamphlet, entitled " Fraternal Appeal to the American Church- 
es," indicated the basis of union, and was widely distributed. 
This society became extinct, but in May, 1846, about fifty 
American divines and laymen met in New York, formed the 
first nucleus of the American Branch of the Evangelical Alli- 
ance, and appointed delegates to the approaching London Gen- 
eral Conference. Then we notice a German thread. In 1842 
Rev. Dr. Kniewel, archdeacon of Danzig, traveled through 
England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany for the 
purpose of promoting friendly relations between Christians of 
both Established and Dissenting Churches. In 1844 he pub- 
lished an account of his journey, and thus prepared many minds 
for co-operation with the Evangelical Alliance. There is also 
a French thread. In 1845 the Protestant Church of Lyons 
called a meeting in favor of united Christianity. A commit toe 
was formed in Lyons, Paris, Nismes, and other places where 
French is spoken, such as Brussels, Geneva, Lausanne. These 
constituted the French branch of the Evangelical Alliance, and 



22 

entered into communication with the English body. But the 
English thread is the most important. A number of meetings 
in favor of Christian unity were held throughout the kingdom, 
and finally culminated in the London G-eneral Conference. 
There was no disposition on the part of any Church connected 
with the Alliance, in any of these countries, to escape from 
Confessional accountability and individuality. It was not, as 
one of our modern pagan poets has sung — 

The desire of the moth for the star, 

Of the night for the morrow ; 
The devotion to something afar 

From the sphere of our sorrow. 

But it was taught that there was yet some Christian ground 
not yet fully occupied ; that there was a place for a wider co- 
operation of believers ; and that the united action of evangel- 
ical Christians could accomplish a work which as individuals 
could not be done. This thought has had its fulfillment, and 
yet much greater work remains to be done. 

5. Sunday-school Instruction. 
In 1872 an effort was made in the United States for a uni- 
form system of Sunday-school instruction. It was believed 
that many advantages could be gained by the leading denomi- 
nations deciding on one common lesson system ; that it would, 
for example, bring all teachers and friends of the Sunday- 
school into more cordial relations, that better facilities could 
be afforded for the training of teachers for their work, and 
that a systematic study of the Bible would be secured in all 
schools. A special committee, consisting of Rev. Drs. J. H. 
Yincent and Edward Eggleston, and B. F. Jacobs, Esq., who 
were appointed to make arrangements for the Fifth Annual 
Sunday-school Convention, to be held in Indianapolis in 1872, 
met in New York in 1871, and decided upon a uniform lesson 
system, and presented it to the Convention, when it was 



23 

adopted. A committee of six ministers and six laymen, from 
different parts of the United States and Canada, and represent- 
ing different denominations, were appointed to arrange a series 
of Bible Lessons for a term of seven years, and covering the 
study of the whole Bible. It was recommended that the 
Sunday-schools of the whole country adopt this lesson system. 1 
Dr. Yincent entered into correspondence with British Sunday- 
school workers, such as Mr. F. J. Hartley and Rev. James 
Inglis, who approved of the plan. The trial of the first seven 
years' Lesson System has proved an eminent success. A com- 
mittee, from all the leading American Churches, arranged a 
second systematic course of instruction. This is now prosecuted 
all over the country, and in nearly all the foreign mission fields 
of the American Church. Out of this fraternal relation in 
Sunday-school instruction has grown the Chautauqua Conven- 
tion, which is held every year in August, and is attended by 
persons interested in Sunday-school work from all parts of the 
United States and the Dominion of Canada. The plan for 
normal class study is carefully prepared, and is carried out by 
teachers and lecturers without regard to confessional differences. 
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle utilizes existing 
Sunday-school organizations in promoting true mental culture. 
It prescribes a course of study, with a view to future examina- 
tion, and is valuable in the impulse it gives to many minds, who 
have not had the opportunity of extensive academic study, for 
study at home according to a prescribed system of study. The 
American poet, Wm. C. Bryant, shortly before his death, gave 
it his cordial indorsement in these words : "It will give the 
members a common pursuit, which always begets a feeling 
of brotherhood. They will have a common topic of conversa- 
tion and discussions, and the consequence will be that many 

» This committee consisted of the following : J. H. Vincent, Chairman ; W. 
Randolph, Secretary; John Hall, Richard Newton, A. L. Chapin, George 11. Stuart, 
B. F. Jacobs, P. G. Gillett, A. G. Tyng, II. P. Haven, J. Munro Cihson, A. 
Maeallum. See Gilbert, The Lesson System : The Story of Its Origin and In- 
auguration, p. 58. 



24 

who, if they stood alone, might soon grow weary of the studies 
assigned to them, will be incited to perseverance by the inter- 
est which they see others take in them." Within the last two 
decades there has been a great increase in Sunday-school litera- 
ture in all lands. 

6. Bible Revision. 

One evidence of the fraternal relations of the various Anglo- 
Saxon religious bodies may be seen in the measures adopted 
in Great Britain and the United States for a careful revision 
of the authorized English version of the Scriptures, namely, 
King James' version of 1611 A.D. In 1870 the Convocation 
of Canterbury appointed a committee of eminent biblical 
scholars of the Church of England, with power to revise for 
public use the Authorized Yersion, and to associate with them 
representative biblical scholars of other Christian denomina- 
tions. The American Committee was organized in 1871, by 
invitation and with the approval of the British revisers, and 
began work in 1872. The British and American committees 
are virtually one organization, with the same principles and 
objects, and in constant correspondence with each other. The 
two committees embrace seventy-nine active members — fifty- 
two in England and twenty-seven in America — who represent 
every leading evangelical Confession in Anglo-Saxon Christen- 
dom. 1 

7. Young Men's Christian Associations. 

These were organized in London in 1844 for the special pur- 
pose of shielding young men from the temptations surrounding 
them. In 1851 an association was formed in Montreal, and 
shortly afterward another in Xew York. Since then they 
have multiplied in all parts of the Christian world, and are 
maintained by the various evangelical denominations. The 
following list of conferences gives proof of their rapid and 
healthful increase : — 

1 Anglo-American Bible Revision. Essays by members of the American Revision 
Committee. New York, 1879. 



25 





s|S 












: 










: 


CO 
CO 


■pu W ™ 


. 1 »« 

o 1 


>o 1 co 1 co 

3 1 


r- 1 CO 




CO 


•uspaMg 


a 1 




"-' 


















« 1 
























^ 


•ai'Bds 


a 1 


























o 1 
























1-1 


•^wi 


a 1 


























Q 1 




CO 


^ 














1-1 


•pa*II°H 


a 1" 




















o |« 


I— 1 


CO 


00 


CO 




CO 




•" 


•areiug ^jg 


a 1*- 


co 










Th 


CO 


Q I*" 


>o 


CO 


r-l 


CO 
CO 


CO 

CO 


t— 


i^ 

-* 


•^atsrauao 


• 1 ^ 

« 1 


OS 


MM 






tH 


• 1 ^ 
« 1 


7-1 


Is M 


10 


OS 

era 


O 


•aou'Bjj 


a 1 3 


O 

CO 












O 


ft IS 


(?) 


Ci 


co 


O 


CO 


CO 


CO 


•Jl-iuumad 


a 1 
























M 


a 1 




























•adoji poo*) 
jo oduQ 


a 1 












d 1 
















1— 1 








1-1 


•camSpg 


a 1 


























a 1 rH 


■ ^ 


^ 


^< 


«3 


CO 


' H 


1-1 


•Bu^sny 


a 1 
























co 


» 1 


























•■Bitwjsny 


a 1 




M 






















« 1 
























1-1 


"EDijauiv 


a l rt 


"- 1 


















CO 


ft 1*- 






CO 


O 




CO 


10 


CO 


55 


•aDBS[V 


a 1 : 


























ci 1 : 
























CO 


•sjaqin3j\[ para 


CO 

c© 
























CO 
CO 




00 

10 




O 
3 


35 


00 


10 1 t~- 

CO 

r-H 1 CO 


•suoi^jpossy 
jo "ON 


oo 

CO 


■* 




CO 
CO 


1— 1 





00 


co 


W 
ft 

W 

S 


M 

o 
o 

O 

<-a 

M 


d 
ft 

p. 

< 

Is 




a 
c 

< 

E- 


§a| 

03 l - J E > 




H 

w 

A 

Oh 

3 

co 


W 



> 

w 


& 
M 

PQ 

O 

!> 


i 

N 

H 

C 


> 


Q 
P 

< 

a 
» 

gg 

£a 



ft 


1(0 H 

-5 


CC 
CO 

lO CO 

00 _• 

a 
< 


*- 

. T 

CO rH 
CO T— i 
00 _,_• 

1-1 a. 
a> 
CO 


2 be 


CO 
. CO 

CO 

00 jj 

<u 


CO 
CO 

3 
<3 


00 

10 ^ 
00 .. 

r-t bC 
P 
<1 




CO 

06 4< 

^ I-H 

00 ^« 

^-. br 

P 


PLACE. 




ft 

P. 
"G 

03 

Ph 


£2 
ci 


ft 

C3 

"be 

gj 

a 


n3 


a> 

3 


<0 

ft 
Eh 

1 


§1 

(fl 

3 
< 


Jo 


c 

0) 


1 


►— 




= 










> 




> 








t> 


> 



26 

As an index of the financial and general strength of this im- 
portant agency of united American Christians we give a table 
illustrative of the constant growth of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations in the United States : — 



STATISTICS OF THE YEARS 1878-T9. 



1873-4. 



1374-5. 



1575-6. 



1S76-7. 



1817-8. 1S7S-9 



Whole number of Associations. 
Number of Associations report- 



Average number of members 

of whole number of Assoc'ns. 115 

Total number of members 96.600 

Average annual expenses of 

whole number of Assoc'ns. . $450 
Total annual expenses of whole 

number of Associations $378,000 

Number of General Secretaries. 78 

Number of buildings .... 47 

Value of buildings $1,963,000 

Building Funds" i 5S 

Amount of Funds } $529,662 

Bible Classes ' 92 



S40 



950 



106,S50 

$420 

$399,000 
87 
56 

$2,434,900 $2,390,600 

46 56 

$408,756 $399,123 

S6 122 



965 



110 
106,150 

$3S0 

$357,700 
92 
60 



9S0 

775 

100 
98,000 

$330 

$823,400 
112 
43 
$1,862,811 
47 
$365,007 
175 



990 

854 

100 
99,000 

$8S0 

$376,200 

114 

56 

$1.924770 

42 

$234,182 

198 



100 
100,000 

$890 

$890,000 

141 

60 

$2,451,000 

37 

$250,190 

201 



TIL 
NECESSITY OF FKION IX OPPOSING EPvROR. 
1. Heathenism. 
The world has not yet been conquered for Christ, Heathen- 
ism is still broad and proud. Missionary efforts need to be mul- 
tiplied, and the generosity of the Church at home is to be taxed 
to its utmost. "Without doubt, the labors of the missionaries 
in foreign lands have accomplished far more because of their 
denominational quality than if they had been supported by unde- 
nominational contributions. But the spirit of unity of purpose 
at home in organizing missionary work, and a sense of fraternity 
when in contact with the heathen, are absolutely necessary for 
the highest missionary success. Distance from the battle-fields 
of home makes the missionary, when face to face with gross 
idolatry, forget largely the distinctions and prejudices of his 
native land. Livingstone has well said : " All classes of Chris- 
tians find that sectarian rancor soon dies out when they are 
working together among and for the real heathen." Here, too, 



27 

denominational individuality must be preserved. But the 
heathen must be made to see that beneath all the apparent 
divisions among Christians there is a pure love and fellowship 
prevailing among all workers in their midst. Love is the one 
thing against which there is no argument. It is the final ap- 
peal. The spirit of the Evangelical Alliance has even extended 
to the far-off heathen fields. For example, in Japan an Evan- 
gelical Alliance has been formed, and the first session was held 
in Tokio in July, 1878. It was conducted by native and for- 
eign Christians, and had an important bearing in the work of 
all the denominations represented in that kingdom. 1 

2. Romanism. 

Romanism, while it has made its own boast of unity, has al- 
ways charged Protestantism with divisions. The reverse is 
really the fact. The origin of Jansenism in Holland, and Old 
Catholicism in Germany and Switzerland, are indices of the 
completeness of the inner spirit of disruption. The Reforma- 
tion was an effort in the direction of the unity of believers. 
Dorner uses the following words as a declaration of his purpose 
in writing his history of Protestant theology : " Under the 
guidance of the spirit of evangelical Christianity, in spite of 
the variety of nationalities, as well as the manifold conforma- 
tions of evangelical Protestant Christianity among those peo- 
ples who have appropriated the blessings of the Reformation 
of the sixteenth century, in spite of the divisions in language, 
usages, and habits, as well as in destiny, evangelical Protestant 
Christendom is a unity. When all Protestants can approach 
each other in a spirit of love, each preserving his own individ- 
uality, yet co-operating for the progress of the Gospel, there 
will be few to believe any longer in Bossuet's dream of the 
divisions of Protestantism. As a practical illustration of the 

1 Among the topics discussed were, The Teachings of Christianity and It8 
Enemies; Basis of Christian Unity; Christianity and Literature; Christianity and 
Liberty; and, Sunday-schools. 



28 

power of inter-denominational union to counteract Roman 
Catholic error, we may refer to that noble and successful insti- 
tution, the Gustavus Adolphus Society, in Germany, and the 
American and Foreign Christian Union, in the United States. 

3. Skepticism. 
The vigor of the present attack of so-called Liberal theol- 
ogy on the one hand, and Materialism on the other, should not 
create discouragement among believers. There must be some 
wise end in the divine permission of the hostile forces through 
all these ages, from Celsus and Porphyry down to the present 
generation of the Idolaters of Force. Perhaps the visitation 
has made the Church look more attentively upon the grounds 
of its faith, and to have care that no rust gather on its sword 
and shield. The new foe is only the old one. The infidelity 
of to-day has simply the rouge of this newest century upon its 
wrinkled face. This same changing, yet slowly-dying, infidelity 
would take away our comfort in the present life and our hope 
for the future. TTe cannot surrender that which makes both 
lives dear to us. The most pitiable feature of skepticism is its 
wretched poverty. It lias nothing but words. It furnishes no 
substitute for the thefts it would commit. Goethe's tender 
word, though not so designed, describes well the protest which 
the child of Faith must make against the deprivations of 
doubt : 

u Yet must thou leave me 

My earth still standing, 

And this my dwelling, which thou didst not build ; 

And my bright hearth, 

Whose ruddy glow 

Thou enviest me." 1 

i Prometheus : Muss mir meine Erde 
Doch lassen stehen, 

Und meine Huette, die du nicht gebaut ; 
Und meinen Herd. 
Urn dessen gut 
Du mien beneidest. 



29 

In the presence of this vandal skepticism the Church has a 
new reminder of the necessity of a loving union of all believ- 
ers in our Lord Jesus Christ. There must be one front against 
this eager foe. The Church can afford to waste no vital force 
in a controversy on matters of small moment. 

The union of believers will be misjudged by our foes. Even 
this Evangelical Alliance is termed narrow. The union which 
it teaches, and of which it is itself an illustration, causes great 
offense to those who doubt the fundamental principles of the 
Christian faith. The very platform of the Alliance is opposed 
by the skeptic as being too narrow. Here is a specimen of how 
our adversaries attack it : " These fundamentals are dishonoring 
to God, reproachful of our nation, contrary to reason, exaggera- 
tions of Scripture, fatal to any permanent hold of Christ, and, 
next to the baser passions and appetites, the chief source of 
skepticism and superstition." l This is only one of the outbursts 
of wrath which took place in New York after the close of the 
session of the Alliance in 1873. There was an organized at- 
tack proposed by our so-called Free Religionists. Essays were 
read by Messrs. Frothingham, Youmans, Weiss, Ellenger, 
Abbot, and others. A choice letter from Charles Bradlaugh, 
of England, was welcomed and read. The very topics dis- 
cussed by the Alliance were held up as a ground of reproach. 
One speaker, Rev. Mr. Weiss, author of the " Life of Theodore 
Parker," even went so far as to compare these addresses of those 
representatives of theological thought to Falstaff's tavern bill : 

"As regard for authority is supreme in the Evangelical Churches, I 
considered from what quarter the model and tradition of these subjects 
must have been derived; and I found it at length in the tavern-bill 
which Prince Henry discovered in Falstaff's pocket: 

Item — Anchovies and 



Item — A Capon 2s. 6d. 

Item — Sauce 4d. 

Item — Sack, two gallons... 5s. 8d. 



Item — Sack after Supper. . . 2s. 6d. 
Item — Bread ^d. 



i Bellows' Sermon on the Evangelical Alliance. See New York Tribune, Oct. 
15, 1873. 



30 

"Monstrous, indeed! Only one half-pennyworth of Social Evil to 
that intolerable deal of theological brew! " 1 

When such a session as that of the Evangelical Alliance in 
New York, in 1873, can awaken snch protests on the part of 
onr skeptical adversaries, we nrust accept the protest as a grat- 
ifying index of the power of Christian union. The oneness 
of all believers must awaken the fears of all enemies of evan- 
gelical truth, whether in the Old or the New World. It is one 
of the new prophecies of final success : Christi, vicisti I 

4. Unity of Society. 

The world is, at best, divided. Christ directed the attention 
of his disciples to the power of his atonement as the world's 
great unifying agency : " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw 
all men unto me." There is no hope of the union of these 
jarring millions of our fellow-beings under one form of gov- 
ernment, or social system, or ecclesiastical organization. But 
we can well hope for union under the common banner of the 
Prince of peace. All sin is disintegrating and dispersing. It 
alienates wherever it is found. But the Gospel of Christ, if 
taught as he taught, and lived as he lived, must remove the 
causes of dissent and controversy, and bring long-lost brothers 
into a new acquaintanceship and everlasting union. 2 The world 
has its unity, but that of the Church of Christ is very far re- 
moved from it. It is, indeed, the connecting link of all society. 
All the poor substitutes for our evangelical religion, and all 
such educational social schemes as that of Rousseau and Base- 
dow, are only the priest and the Levite going on the other side 
of the road from our wounded humanity. Christianity, in the 
keenness of its vision and breadth of its sympathy, is that poor 
Samaritan who approaches the sufferer, and secures his com- 
fort, safety, and life. 

^ee New York Tribune of Oct. 16 and 17, 1873, for this and other proceed- 
ings of the " Free Religion Alliance." 
2 Hodge, Church Polity, p. 21. 



31 

VIII. 
THE ADVANCE YET TO BE MADE. 

If the union of believers is snch an important factor as we 
declare it to be, it is clear that its whole mission has by no 
means been fulfilled. 

1. Greater attention must be given to the preaching of fun- 
damental Christian doctrines. The depravity of the human 
heart, thorough repentance because of sin, faith in Christ, re- 
generation of the heart, the sanctification of the believer, the 
personal and individual resurrection of this human body, the 
recognition of friends, the salvation of believers, and the endur- 
ing punishment of the finally impenitent — these are the truths 
which the first preachers boldly declared, and which gained the 
Church its first power. There is no substitute for them. They 
are needed now as fully as when Paul made his first missionary 
tour through Asia Minor, or missionaries from Italy first landed 
on the shores of Britain, and came face to face with Jute, 
Angle, Saxon, and Frisian. 

2. There should be a more frequent interchange of denomina- 
tional sentiment. While each great religious body has its own his- 
tory, its own traditions, its dearest and most revered names, there 
need be no surrender of them ; but many difficulties may be re- 
moved by a more frequent and cordial inter-Confessional senti- 
ment. In the best periods there has always been a beautiful reci- 
procity of love and visitation. The Fathers of the early Church 
were constantly visiting the separated sections, and bringing all 
parts into spiritual homogeneousness ! The Churches of Asia 
Minor and those of Gaul encouraged each other, for example, in 
the sore persecutions through which they had to pass. Justin 
Martyr chose the itinerant life for his ministerial career, 
and we find him in Ephesus, Egypt, Lower Italy, and Rome, 
binding all parts of the Church together by the force of 
his personal presence. The personal interviews between the 
Reformers, their fraternal meetings and discussions, were of 



32 

marked effect 1 in promoting harmony of action and the re- 
moval of many theological differences. The journeys of Eras- 
mus, fond as he was of Greek study here in the silent cloisters of 
the venerable cathedral in this city, had much to do with devel- 
oping a homogeneous theology and a unity of action in Switz- 
erland and Holland. There was just a little stir and emphatic 
discussion between Luther and Zwingli at Marburg ; but the 
clearer vision has long since decided that their disputation 
accomplished great good, saved much heart-burning, and made 
more feasible a later harmony of the Protestant view of the 
Lord's Supper. Xo, denominational sympathy without the 
compromise of denominational individuality has not yet run its 
race. 2 There is much room for sympathy still ! For the 
better reaching of the masses, the educating of the young, the 
uplifting of the poor, the learning of the best methods from 
each other, we need, for the great advances required by the fu- 
ture, this broader and more frequent denominational communion. 
3. There should be a more intense treasuring of possessions 
common to us all. In the religious life all good cm-rents cross 
each other. Lew Churches are the sole authors of their own 
most precious treasures. Even Christianity has its Jewish 
origin. " "VThat has Jerusalem to do with Athens I " asks Ter- 
tullian: and in reply one might say, •'* Very much, for Paul 
every-where gives evidence of his Greek culture, and it became 
one of Iris forces in the development of the doctrinal system of 
the early Church/ vs The whole Church of Christ has a 
common treasure in the theology of the first five centuries. 
The writings of all the Reformers can stand in brotherly union 

1 Piper, (see BtqMgeUaekcr Kalendcr, Jahrgang. pp. 29-60.) furnishes an interest- 
ing sketch, with many new details of the travels of the Church Fathers. 

8 Hodge says, on Paul's doctrine of the necessary union of believers, "that 
God means by creating us so diversely: 1. That each should be content; 2. All 
should sympathize with each other; 3. All should cooperate." — Conference Pa- 
pers, pp. 306. 307. 

3 Compare the scriptural use of -veiua &) iov and the Saeer Spiritm of 
Seneca, together with many important parallels between the classical writers and 
Paul, cited by Lightfoot, St. PauVs Epittle to the Philippians, pp. 268-331. 



33 

on the shelves of any library. Who can appropriate Luther, 
or Zwingli, or Calvin, or Melanchthon, or Erasmus, or Spener, 
or Zinzendorf, or Wesley? To whom belong the martyrs? 
Who.dare shut them up in his own jewel-case 1 Shall Italy and 
Switzerland lay sole claim to their heroic Waldenses — 

"Slaughtered saints, whose bones 

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ? " 

The theology of two centuries ago in England belongs to 
universal Christendom. The hymns we sing have been struck 
first from very varied harp-strings. The Protestant does not 
become undevout if he sing the songs of the mediaeval Bernard 
of Clairvaux, or of the Faber of our own times. The psal- 
mody of our Protestant Churches has come from all quarters of 
the compass and from all Christian ages. The partition of the 
choice hymns of the Church among those who claim their au- 
thorship would be no more possible than the parceling off of 
the sunlight. The great Confessions, which are the purest 
voices of the Churches, have gone far beyond their original 
limits. Why should there not be a treasuring of each other's 
possessions, a just love for the great achievements of all the 
servants of Christ by all the servants of Christ ? The brave 
heart and the strong hand do service for all believers of every 
name. He who has fought well for the good cause of the 
Gospel belongs to the heroic group of the one whole Church of 
Christ. 

IX. 

UNITY IN THE CHURCH MILITANT A PREPARATION 
FOR THE HIGHER UNITY OF THE CHURCH TRI- 
UMPHANT. 

He who cultivates the fraternal spirit amid the strifes and 
convulsions of the present life is better prepared thereby for 
the peace and rest of heaven. The great champions of the 
truth, as they have drawn near the end of their work, have al- 
ways counseled forbearance and gentleness. The Church here 



34 

is the only type we have of the Church hereafter. If rent 
here, it will convey a very faint idea of the common joys that 
await the believer in the heavenly city, adorned 

" With pyramids and towers 
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold." 

As we look abont us to-day we no longer see faces familial 
and dear to the members of this Alliance. They have taken 
their permanent place in the Church of the first-born. Some, 
with the charms of their earnest words yet lingering in our ears, 
soon went home to their crowns and palms. At the recent ses- 
sions of the Alliance there were present as participants many 
who are now beyond the strife of this life. At the Xew York 
session there were Pronier and Carrasco, whose resurrection 
will be none the less triumphant and glorious because it shall 
be from the calm depths of the sea — for the sea shall give up 
its dead. Then there was Cook, who twice escaped shipwreck, 
but whose shattered frame yielded to the shock amid the en- 
dearments of home as he looked out upon the welcome sun- 
light of his own fair France. These, with many others, have 
ascended to that long communion of saints. 

" One family we dwell in him, 

One Church above, beneath, 
Though now divided by the stream, 

The narrow stream of death. 
One army of the living God, 

To his command we bow ; 
Part of his host have crossed the flood, 

And part are crossing now." 

The underlying ground for this endeavor after a higher 
unity is Christ's reconciliation of all " unto God in one body." 
He is the bond of union, and through him and in him only 
can we hope for the completeness of heaven. 1 We are 

1 Grotius : " The two different parts (Jews and Gentiles) are so united that 
they are first and chiefly united with the connecting bond. Jews and Gentiles 
were made friends with each other through their friendship with God." See De- 
fense of Catholic Faith, concetiiing Satisfaction of Christ Chap, vii, 7, sec. vi. 



35 

hastening to the better day. In due time we shall cast aside 
this coarse working garb, and, as Luther was wont to say, 
" We shall put on our Easter robes." Then there will be one 
home and one song. The divisions and confusions of this 
mortal life will be forgotten in the lasting union of heaven. 
"We shall no longer remember the Babel of earth, when our 
ears catch the first harmonious syllables of the one language of 
the everlasting Pentecost. 









"i 



CHRISTIAN UNION 



NECESSARY FOE 



cn 



tigisHS jpsjress itl Mefensi 



BY JOHN F. HURST, D.D., 

President of the Dhew Theological Seminary. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, IN BASLE, SWITZERLAND, 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1879. 



NEW YORK : 
H X Ij Ij I 1F> S cfc HUNT. 

CINCINNATI; 
HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 

l88o. 



f 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR: 

History of Rationalism. With Appendix of Literature $3 50 

Hagenbach's History of the Church in the Eighteenth and 
Nineteenth Centuries. Translated, with Notes and an 
Account of the Most Recent History of the Church. 2 vols. . 6 00 

Martyrs to the Tract Cause o 75 

Van Oosterzee's Apologetical Lectures on John's Gospel. 
Translated, with Notes and Bibliography of Johannean Criti- 
cism 1 25 

Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, by Lange. 

Translated, with Homiletical Additions 5 00 

Outline of Bible History. Revised Edition. With Maps... o 50 
Outline of Chuich History. Revised Edition. With Maps., o 50 
Life and Literature in the Fatherland 2 25 



